Melodee Buzzard's mother was arrested Tuesday and accused in the death of her 9-year-old daughter after the girl's body was found in a rural area of Utah more than two months after she disappeared in Southern California.
Investigators uncovered a "significant amount of evidence" that indicated that Ashlee Buzzard, 40, killed her daughter, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters. Buzzard is being held without bail on suspicion of first-degree murder, Brown said.
"Maternal filicide is rare and always difficult to comprehend," he said. "This level of criminal activity is particularly shocking given the calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness that went into planning it."
Melodee's body was found Dec. 6 by a man and a woman who were taking pictures in Wayne County, Utah, Brown said. It was clear that the body was that of a girl who "died from gunshot wounds to the head," Brown said.
An FBI analysis of DNA confirmed the body was Melodee's, Brown said.
Officials searched Buzzard's home, a rented storage locker and a rental car and found an expended cartridge case, as well as a live round of similar ammunition, officials said. A murder weapon has not yet been found, officials said.
"Our investigators and those of our allied agencies worked simultaneously on multiple fronts, some maintaining around-the-clock surveillance of Ashley Buzzard, while others focused on the painstaking collection, analysis and verification of physical, digital and forensic evidence," Brown said.
Neighbors said they saw deputies taking Buzzard from her home in Vandenberg Village early Tuesday, according to NBC News affiliate KSBY of San Luis Obispo. Buzzard had been uncooperative during the search and the investigation into Melodee's disappearance, sheriff's officials have said.
Lompoc Unified School District said in a statement in October that Buzzard took Melodee to an independent study program in August to enroll but that the girl did not attend through early October, prompting a series of responses to truancy that culminated in notifying law enforcement.
Investigators have focused their attention on a road trip the pair took from Southern California to Nebraska from Oct. 7 to Oct. 10.
Security video showed Melodee wearing a wig on Oct. 7 at the rental car business where they picked up a Chevrolet Malibu, the sheriff’s office said. Detectives believe the wig was used to throw off attempts to track or find her, and they said her mother was known to wear them.
At some point during the trip, the rental car's license plate was temporarily switched to a New York plate, allegedly to avoid detection, the sheriff's office said.
Authorities said Melodee was last seen on the return leg of the trip on Oct. 9, near the Utah-Colorado border, but was not with Ashlee Buzzard when she returned home with the rental vehicle on Oct. 10, detectives said in a series of updates.
Investigators believe Melodee was killed shortly after the stop at the Utah-Colorado border, Brown said.
Sheriff's deputies arrested Ashlee Buzzard on suspicion of felony false imprisonment in a separate case on Nov. 7. A man testified that she held him against his will at her home and had a box cutter, KSBY reported. The charge was dismissed Nov. 20, with prosecutors later citing contradictory information and insufficient evidence, a spokesperson for the regional district attorney said.
Attempts to reach Ashlee Buzzard since late October have been unsuccessful, and her mother, reached by phone, declined to comment.
Melodee's disappearance stirred concern among some in her community of Vandenberg Village, about 160 miles northwest of Los Angeles. People have sometimes gathered outside her home and shouted questions about her whereabouts.
Corinna Meza, Melodee’s half-sister, said, "We’re all looking for answers,” KSBY reported. She said that Melodee's father died when her little sister was a baby and that the girl had rarely been seen, even among family.
